Chaeto died

cwickham · #1 08-13-2008, 01:48 AM

i just got Chaeto for my fuge and within about 2 weeks it all turned brown and died...

any ideas

thanks
craig

whatcaneyedo · #2 08-13-2008, 03:00 AM

Could you give us some more information and tell us a little about your tank?

Salinity?
Temperature?
pH?
Calcium?
Alkalinity?
Phosphate?
Nitrate?
Water flow through fuge?
Type/duration of lighting for fuge?
Tank bioload?
Do you run a skimmer?
Do you use a phosphate removing media?
Do you run carbon?
Are there any other kinds of macro algae in your fuge?
Age of your tank?....

cwickham · #3 08-13-2008, 03:07 AM

Salinity = 1.026
Temperature = 80F
pH 8.4
Calcium?
Alkalinity?
Phosphate?
Nitrate = 0 to 5ppm

no skimmer yet and bio load is just snails and 3 hermits, 1 pom pom. theres nothing else in the fuge but sand and LR, and im not sure exactly how much water flow it has, but basically it has 1/3 of what drains into my sump. i dont run carbon and have nothing to remove phosphate.

whatcaneyedo · #4 08-13-2008, 03:14 AM

Sounds like a pretty new tank. I know of chaeto dying because of a lack of phosphate and without any fish it could be that your system is too 'clean' for it right now. Do you feed your tank anything? What sort of light do you have over your fuge? What other kinds of algae do you have growing in your system?

cwickham · #5 08-13-2008, 04:27 AM

Tanks about 3 months old... so its still very new... i was also thinking it might be a lack of nutrient issue but i have bryopsis or hair algea im not 100 percent sure... its mostly on my LS and nothing seems to eat it.. every time i do a water change a get rid of more and more... but it seems to be the only algea growing in my tank at the moment.

i have just got a 15 wat CF 6700k. it might not be enough light.. but i think the algea would have died allot slower if light was to weak?

whatcaneyedo · #6 08-13-2008, 04:56 AM

More light could help. I use a 15W 6700K CF to light my nano tanks 2gal fuge for growing caulerpa and it does an alright job but more light would produce better growth for me and might help for you. Testing for phosphate could also yield another answer, without any fish in your tank it could be that your phosphate levels are extremely low or zero.

I've seen a colony of chaeto die before in near zero phosphate while another macro algae species did fine so maybe consider trying something else. Gracilaria is another very popular choice, it has basically all of the same benefits of chaeto and none of problems of caulerpa. Plus most tangs love it.